Photo: Getty Images

Captain of the New Zealand cricket team Brendon McCullum is set to retire from international cricket, after confirming that the two match Test series against Australia will be his last. The 34 year old is New Zealand's second highest run getter in Tests, with 6,273 runs which include 11 hundreds over 99 matches."I've loved my opportunity to play for, and captain the Black Caps. But all good things have to come to an end, and I'm just grateful for the wonderful experience," he said. Kane Williamson is expected to captain New Zealand at the World T20 in March next year.

A private criminal complaint has been filed against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a Delhi court for using "defamatory" words against Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the recent CBI raid at the office of his Principal Secretary.The complainant, an advocate, has sought Kejriwal's prosecution under sections 124A (sedition) and 500 (defamation) of the IPC.

The plea was filed at Tis Hazari Courts and it would come up for hearing on January 4, 2016.Advocate Pradeep Kumar Dwivedi has in his complaint alleged that when CBI raided the Chief Minister's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar's Delhi Secretariat office on December 15, Kejriwal made offensive remarks on his Twitter account against Modi.

-PTI

Photo: Twitter

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday escalated protest against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley demanding his resignation over the alleged irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). The protest march to Jaitley's residence was stopped by the police at Tughlaq Road. The Police tried to disperse the crows with water cannons. The protestors were seen holding placards and shouting slogans demanding Jaitley's resignation.

File photo

The Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die without transacting any business after Opposition protests over a comment by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. She reportedly said something about protests having "vested interest" that she made on Monday. She had to expunge her own comments on the demand of the Opposition. Responding to the Opposition for not letting the House function, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu said: "There is intolerance towards mandate of people, this cannot be accepted at all."

Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha was briefly stalled over stones arriving in Ayodhya from Gujarat and Rajasthan for construction of the Ram Temple. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, K C Tyagi (JD-U) said the circumstances for a communally-charged atmosphere are being created ahead of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

File photo

Seeking to put further pressure on Arun Jaitley, banned Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) president KPS Gill today dragged the Union Finance Minister into the affairs of Hockey India, urging the Delhi government to probe into the BJP stalwart's "conflict of interest" in the national hockey body.

Former top cop, Gill has written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, alleging that Jaitley had appointed his daughter Sonali as the counsel for Hockey India when he was a member of the advisory board of Hockey India League.

Hockey India President Narinder Batra strongly refuted the allegations, saying Gill's charges were "baseless".

The BJP disciplinary committee on 23 December suspended party MP Kirti Azad following repeated allegations of corruption against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He had defied party diktat of not speaking on the issue. Reacting to the development Azad said that he had committed no anti-party activity and it was unfair to suspend for fighting corruption. He also claimed that he was not given any prior notice before the party decided to suspend him.

He questioned the rationale behind the suspension claiming he had been making the allegations against DDCA for nine year and has never named Jaitley directly. Some of the allegations Azad has made against the DDCA include embezzlement of funds, tax evasion and making fake payments to fake subsidiary construction companies.

Photo: Getty Images

The Uttar Pradesh government has filed a chargesheet in the Dadri lynching case. 15 people have been named in the chargesheet including one juvenile. The chargesheet has been filed three months after the incident. 50-year old Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched on 28 September 2015, in Dadri's Bisara village.

The incident happened after an announcement was made in a temple that Akhlaq had consumed beef and stored some of it in his fridge.There was no mention of beef in the chargesheet just as there was no mention of it when the FIR was filed in October.The chargesheet was filed a day after five persons were arrested by UP Police for their alleged involvement in the lynching which occurred on September 28. Akhlaq's daughter, Shaista, is the chief witness in the case.